NaviKey Help

13 February 2008

M. J. Dallwitz

About the program

Information about NaviKey is available at http://www.navikey.net.

If the key is not displayed, make sure that you have installed and enabled the latest version of the Java Runtime Environment.

Identification

Before starting identification, you must select ‘Retain items unrecorded for the selected characters’ in the ‘Options’ tab. Then proceed as follows.

1. In the ‘Characters available’ (top-left) panel, click on a character that you feel confident you can use.
2. The program displays a list of character states, or a boxes for entering values such as lengths. Click on the state, or enter the value, that applies to your specimen, and click ‘Select’ or ‘Add’. If you aren’t sure, don’t guess a single state or value. Instead, select more than one state, enter a range of values, or try another character. To select more than one state, hold down the ‘Ctrl’ key while clicking..
3. The ‘Resulting items’ (top-right) panel shows the items that match the information that you have entered. Repeat from step 1 until a single item (or no item) is left.

If you think you’ve made a mistake and want to correct it, click on the appropriate attribute in the ‘Selection criteria’ (bottom-left) pane, and click ‘Remove Selection’.

To see a description of any item, click on it. For illustrations and more readable descriptions, click on ‘Introduction, descriptions, illustrations’.

Options

Use character dependencies

When this option is selected, NaviKey hides characters that are inapplicable because of earlier state selections. The option has no effect if ‘Restrict view on used characters and character states of remaining items’ is selected.

Restrict view on used characters and character states of remaining items

When this option is selected, NaviKey hides certain characters and states, as follows. (1) In the ‘Characters available’ panel, NaviKey hides:(a) non-numeric characters whose states have previously been selected; (b) characters that are inapplicable because of earlier state selections; (c) characters that have the same value(s) for all the remaining taxa. (2) In the ‘Character states available’ panel, states that would cause all of the remaining taxa to be eliminated are hidden.

Retain items unrecorded for the selected characters

When this option is selected, taxa for which a character is unrecorded in the database are retained when states of that character are selected. Otherwise, such taxa are eliminated. Warning. When using NaviKey as a key, this option must be selected.

Retain items matching at least one selected state

When this option is selected, taxa that have at least one of the selected states are retained. Otherwise, taxa that lack at least one of the selected states are eliminated.

This option does not affect numeric characters.

Use extreme interval validation

This option applies to numeric characters. When the option is selected, the whole range between the ‘extreme’ values (if present in the taxon data is considered, Otherwise only the range between the ‘normal’ values is considered. Example. In (2.5–)4.1–6.3(–9) the normal range is 4.1–6.3 and the extreme range is 2.5–9.

Use overlapping interval validation

This option applies to numeric characters. When the option is selected, taxa are retained if the specified value or range overlaps the value or range recorded in the database. Otherwise, taxa are eliminated if any part of the specified value or range falls outside the the value or range recorded in the database.

The Java Runtime Environment

NaviKey requires the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) Version 1.5 or later, which is available for computers running Windows, Linux, Solaris, and Mac OS X.

To install the JRE, go to http://www.java.com/download (Windows, Linux, Solaris) or http://www.apple.com/java (Mac OS X).

With a broadband connection, installing the JRE on Windows takes about 2 minutes. The size of the download is about 7MB for Windows, 18MB for Linux and Solaris, and 80MB for Mac OS X. The size of the installed program is about 75MB on Windows.

If the JRE is installed and the key is still not displayed, make sure that Java is enabled in your browser options.